Estrada 301

A gang of well-dressed armed robbers, unimaginatively dubbed the Tri-State Outfit by police, go on a crime spree across three states. The opening bit with the real governors of Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina giving speeches about law & order will have you rolling your eyes. But stay with this one because it does get better. Steve Cochran is great as the cold-blooded leader of the gang. Robert Webber, Wally Cassell, and Richard Egan are among the other familiar faces in the cast. Lovely actresses Virginia Grey, Gaby André, and Aline Towne pretty things up as molls. Grey's character is a radio junkie, which leads to some funny moments. I liked the location scenery and the cars, fashions, and architecture of the period. It's a well-paced B crime picture with lots of grit and some atmosphere. Cheesy at times and never anything deep but it is solid entertainment. Were it not for the corny "crime does not pay" messages, this one would probably be more well-known and liked.

After ten years directing musicals and comedies, Andrew Stone with 'Highway 301' turned to making the thrillers for which he remains most fondly remembered. The distinctive 'documentary' style of his later films like 'The Steel Trap' (1952) and 'The Last Voyage' (1960) - using natural sound and authentic locations - is hinted at in the opening robbery sequence, but much that follows resembles a conventional studio-shot gangster film.

In their enormous, immaculate suits Steve Cochran and the rest of his gang at all times look as if they're about to go to a wedding in those big black cars they're driving. Described by Bosley Crowther at the time as "a straight exercise in low sadism", its a far more brutal film than Stone's later thrillers, which tend to take a more benign view of humanity and have more upbeat endings.

HIGHWAY 301 is a rip-roaring Warner Brothers return to their hard-hitting early 1930s gangster cycle complete with a "Crime Does Not Pay" prologue delivered by the governors of the three states the events take place in. Filmed in a semi-documentary style with sporadic voice-over narration, the tale is based on "cold, hard fact" and is surprisingly sadistic -which could be the reason why I never saw it on TV growing up. Like many good crime melodramas, H301 opens with a bank robbery and follows the gang and their molls as they live life on the run and I was reminded of 1967's BONNIE & CLYDE in its depiction of a "family" of outlaws contending with pressures from within as they're relentlessly pursued by the long arm of the law. The brutally handsome Steve Cochran dominates his surroundings as the flint-eyed, heartless, "take-no-prisoners" leader of the "Tri-State Gang" who can calmly kill at the drop of a fedora and Robert Webber and newcomer Gaby Andre (whatever happened to her?) are believable as a young con and his naive bride in over their heads. Familiar face Virginia Grey scores as a radio-addicted dame who knows the score and the reliable Eddie Norris and Richard Egan are also on hand in small roles. The director, Andrew Stone, wrote the never-a-dull-moment script and, in addition to the solid direction and "A" production values only a major studio can provide, the violence directed at women and the high body count made this fast-paced police procedural a slick "shocker" for its day and it still packs a punch. Warners also made WHITE HEAT, KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE (both with James Cagney), and THE DAMNED DON'T CRY (again with bad boy Cochran) around the same time. Highly recommended for fans of this type of film -and you know who you are.

"Several good suspense sequences, some good comic observation, and many pleasing visual moments of the wet-streets-at-night category." -"Punch"

With Steve Cochran as the steely psychopath, his solidly loyal gang members (and Cochran loyal to them), and the carefree, hardboiled but feminine Virginia Grey, the film is well acted. The action on the streets and with large crowds is pleasingly complex and realistic. The finely staged light-and-shadow settings are consistently startling and eye-catching in a variety of indoor and outdoor settings. These elements, despite the governors unconvincingly reading their scripts and a narrative voice for documentary effect, could have made this film a solid 7 and perhaps an 8 out of 10. However, the predictable, tedious melodramatic "Perils of Pauline" escape attempts of the Lee Fontaine character are a ball-and-chain that (for this viewer) held this film back from being a runaway noir success.

I saw this very exciting and fast paced gangster movie over 50 years ago and remember it fondly to this very day. I even remember the theater I saw it in on a Saturday matinée. It kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end and the action never lets up. It's a classic Steve Cochran performance. A real bad apple with no redeeming qualities. Andrew L. Stone directed which is really no surprise because he specialized in action and suspense films which don't allow the viewer to take a deep breath such as the Last Voyage, Cry Terror and Blueprint for Murder. This is the kind of cops and robbers film that they don't make any more.